Ask IH: React-native for simple mobile game?
Hi!
I known react-native quite good, also i known Unity in some level (but worse) ... I want to create a simple game where all you need to do is clicking and building some buildings in your planet (without drag and drop...). Simple 😀
Most important thing is that i want spend on in maximum one weekend AND also i want to finish it on iOS and Android both.
Second most important thing is that i want to get more experience in react-native.
Finally there is my question - what you think about idea to create this game in react-native? Do you have experience, do you think i should use Unity anyway, because of lack of time or other problems that can appears? Is it 'finishable'?
Unity vs react-native!
Hey Michael,
Recently used React Native to create a trivia type game too - https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/show-ih-the-scenario-game-the-would-you-rather-news-feed-2b382c29ff
If you're effectively creating buttons that look like houses that respond with a page then I say it's fine. If you want more complex animations then I'd say use Unity or even HTML5 as it'll just look rubbish.
I remember seeing a blog post on Medium recently where someone made a Candy Crush clone in react native. The only thing is that the animations were so simple it looked really basic. Probably not to the quality of standing out in the app store.
Hey Michael. We actually did build a game with React Native. We are intending to make it support multiplayer.
Pst.. It's faking multiplayer for now.
For us React Native was quite a good tool. The tricky part was animating certain things but it's not too difficult.
You can check out the game here: http://tapsquad.eu
If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them :)
EDIT
We also have a IH product page with a few updates.
https://www.indiehackers.com/product/tap-battle-multiplayer
Wow, nice!
Thanks for tips 👍I will chack the game but it looks great :)
He hey thanks :)
Unity is definitely the way to go, after all, it is a game engine. React Native is probably not best suited for this task, it'd be possible but definitely not appropriate.
Save your time, effort, blood, sweat and tears. Use Unity.
I was thinking similar but in react i can create whole interface pretty and well designed almost instantly. In Unity i have to style it from beginning, right?
Anyway thanks for answer :)
It depends on proficiency I guess. In Unity, if you're a somewhat decent GFX designer, you could throw together a menu & other assets fair quickly.
Personally, if it were a game, I'd still side with Unity. You can still use Firebase, iOS & Android exports, and everything in between, but it just makes it so much easier.